SOURDOUGH BASICS:
SOURDOUGH STARTER, RECIPE, & TROUBLESHOOTING
Activating Your Dehydrated Starter, Crafting Perfect Loaves, and Troubleshooting Tips
HOW TO ACTIVATE
A SOURDOUGH STARTER
Activate your sourdough starter, a living world of yeast and bacteria.
Flour, water, patience - your path to unique homemade bread.
Ready to start the sourdough journey?
1. LET'S ACTIVATE
Before using your dehydrated sourdough starter, you need to activate it. To begin, put the dehydrated starter into a jar or bowl and mix it with 90ml of lukewarm water until it dissolves. Leave it for 10 minutes to make sure it is fully dissolved. Next, add 80g of wheat flour and thoroughly combine the mixture. Allow it to rest at room temperature on the countertop with a lid, or a plastic wrap. However, don't screw the lid on tightly; simply let it rest on top. If you're using a bowl, cover it with a damp tea towel.
2. LET IT REST & ACTIVATE
Leave the starter for 48 hours. Stir twice a day. After the 48h you should see a lot of bubbles. This indicates it is active and ready to be fed.
In a second clean jar or bowl add 50g of the active starter and mix with 50ml of lukewarm water, when completely dissolved and milky, add 50g of wheat flour. Discard the rest of the starter (this is called discard) that is left in the old jar. Place a rubber band on the jar at the level of the starter so you can see when the starter has doubled in size.
The starter may occasionally need an additional feed to become fully active, as its activity can be influenced by temperature.
3. IT'S FEEDING TIME
Well done! Your starter is now active and can be used for bread baking. About 8h before you want to start baking, you need to feed your starter, feed your starter the same way as above. A tip is to feed it just before bed, so you can use it for baking in the morning. When you have fed your starter to bake with it, leave it out in room temperature.
Even if you’re not actively using your starter, it still needs regular feedings to remain healthy. If you store the starter at room temperature, it requires feeding every other day to stay active. If you keep the starter in the fridge, you only need to feed it once a week, as the cooler environment slows down its activity and makes it sleepy.
RECIPE FOR 1 LOAF OF
SOURDOUGH BREAD
(if you want to make two loaves just double the recipe)
Nothing is more satisfying then creating your own sourdough bread.
It is both nourishing for the mind and the body.
LEVAIN:
50g active fed sourdough starter
75g wheat flour
75ml of lukewarm water
MAIN DOUGH:
400g wheat flour
10g Salt
Some extra flour
250ml lukewarm water
a little oil for the bowl
1. LEVAIN
Day 1: Make levain. (about 8h before next step): Mix 50g of your active sourdough starter with 75g of lukewarm water in a big bowl. Mix until completely dissolved. Mix in 75g of flour until smooth. Cover the bowl with a tea towel or plate and leave it to rest on the kitchen bench.
Side note: A levain is a type of pre-dough used in sourdough baking. It’s a starter that is mixed with flour and water and allowed to ferment before adding it to the main dough. This pre-ferment helps boost the dough’s rise, enhances its flavour, and contributes to its overall texture. Think of it as a preliminary step that prepares the dough for the final mixing and baking process. Having said that, using a levain is not a strict requirement for baking sourdough bread, there is many sourdough recipes with out a levain, but in my experience, incorporating a levain often results in better and more consistent results. While you can make sourdough without it, adding a levain tends to produce more reliable and delicious loaves.
2. MAIN DOUGH
8-10h later : Mix the levain with 250ml of lukewarm water and 400g of flour and 10g of salt. Mix until the flour is completly incorporated with the water and has formed a dough. Then rub a little bit of oil around the inside of the bowl, and underneath the dough and then cover the bowl and let it rest for 30min.
3. STRETCH AND FOLD
Put some water or a little oil on your hands, and gently fold the dough by pulling half of the dough and stretch it upward. Fold the dough over toward the center of the bowl. Give the bowl a one-quarter turn and repeat: stretch the dough upward and fold it over toward the center Do this four times or until you have rotaded the bowl back to the same position.
Let it rest for 30 min and then repeat the strech and folding. Then another 30 min rest and another strech and fold..
Then let it rest for 2-3h until it has almost doubled in size. This is the bulk fermentation.
4. CREATE THE LOAF
Pour some flour on the kitchen bench and gently put the dough on the bench. Carefully pull it out to a rectangle and then fold the left side in towards the middle, and then do the same with the right side. Then gently roll it up, and carefully flip the dough over. Then cup the dough with both your hands and carefully drag the dough towards you along the bench, and then push it away from you in a circle. Do 2 circles. The dough should now be a round tight ball.
5. LET THE LOAF PROOF
Cover a banneton, basket or bowl with a tea towel and gently dust it with flour. lift the dough carefully and put it with the smooth side down in the tea towel and cover it with the edges of the tea towel and let it rest in the fridge over night.
6. HEAT THE OVEN
Heat oven to 250c. If you have a cast iron pot, put it in the oven and let it heat up. Make sure the oven and pot is properly hot, leave it in the oven to heat up for at 30 min to an hour. It is important that the cast iron pot is hot to give that great oven spring to your bread.
If you don't have a cast iron pot just put a baking tray in the oven and let it get hot.
4. SCORE YOUR BREAD
Here is a chance to get creative!
Put a parchment paper on top of the bowl and carefully turn the bowl over so that the dough ends up on the parchment paper. With a sharp knife, lame or a razorblade slice the dough in the middle from the top down. If you want to be creative, you can now do a pattern on either side of the cut. To make a wheat like pattern, do 5 small diagonal cuts (about a cm each) an then do the same again right next to the cuts but opposite direction, to create 5 Vs on top of each other.
Side note: The reason we score the bread is to manage the dough's rapid expansion as it enters the oven, a phenomenon referred to as "oven spring. Scoring helps regulate this expansion so that you get a bigger more beautiful bread with out ugly side cracks.
Scoring also gives us a chance to be creative and make a beautiful stunning sourdough bread. The patterns and designs made with a sharp blade give the loaf a professional beautiful look, and a great feeling of satisfaction when the bread comes out of the oven.
5. IS THE BREAD DONE?
If using a cast iron pot: Carefully remove the pot from the oven. Using the edges of the baking paper, gently lift the bread and lower it into the pot. Place the lid back on the pot and return it to the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the lid and continue baking for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown.
If using a oven tray: Take out the oven tray and carefully lift the loaf with the parchment paper and place the loaf on the tray, then put two ice cubes on the tray and put it back in the oven. Bake for 25 min, then turn down the heat to 200c and bake for another 15-20 min or until golden.
Let the bread cool completely before cutting it. Congratulations you have made sourdough bread, enjoy!
SOME
HELPFUL TIPS
- Future feedings: In a clean jar, use 50ml of active starter, mixed with 50ml of lukewarm water and 50ml of flour.
- It is best to ‘feed’ the night before you are going to make bread, or in the morning if baking later in the day, you know the fed starter is ready to bake with when it has doubled in size, this takes about 8h, but is depending of the temperature of the room.
- Sourdough starter likes warmer rooms around 24-28c is their preferred temperature, if your kitchen is cold you can put it close to a heater, or on top of the fridge.
- Feed your starter the night before you are going to make bread, then you can start in the morning, or in the morning if you are planning to start baking in the afternoon.
- If you keep your starter at room temp, feed it every second day. If kept in the fridge you can feed it once a week.
- Sourdough discard is the part of you sourdough starter you discard of when feeding it.
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR SOURDOUGH STARTER
A GUIDE FOR SUCCESS
If your starter is throwing you a curveball, fear not – we've got you covered with solutions to common hitches. Let's troubleshoot and get your sourdough starter back on the path to deliciousness. Troubleshooting is part of the sourdough adventure. With a dash of patience and a sprinkle of adjustments, your sourdough starter will soon be back on track for delicious baking.
1. No Bubbling Activity:
- *Possible Issue:* Hunger or insufficient warmth.
- *Solution:* Feed with equal parts flour and water, maintain a consistent feeding schedule, and keep it in a warm spot (around 23-26°C).
2. Strange Smells:
- *Possible Issue:* Unpleasant odors like vinegar or excessive alcohol.
- *Solution:*This starter needs to be fed more often. Adjust feeding frequency to avoid overfermentation. Feed your starter with fresh flour and water.
3. Gray, brown or Pink Discoloration:
- *Possible Issue:* Unwanted bacterial growth, mold, Contamination.
- *Solution:* If your starter is moldy, you need to through it out and start fresh. To prevent this in the future, make sure you use a clean jar for feedings and use clean utensil when mixing. So discard the starter, sterilize utensils, and start fresh.
4. Liquid Separation:
- *Possible Issue:* Hooch formation, a layer of liquid on top of your starter.
- *Solution:* Pour off hooch, feed the starter, and feed your starter more frequently.
Hooch is actually alcohol and is a by product of the fermentation occurring in your starter. It forms when your sourdough starter has used all of its food, and eaten all the starch in the flour, It'smeans that your starter is hungry!
5. Lack of Rise:
- *Possible Issue:* Weak starter or high hydration.
- *Solution:* Increase flour-to-water ratio, extend fermentation time between feedings, and maintain a consistent schedule.
6. Starter is Too Acidic or sour:
- *Possible Issue:* Overfermentation or high temperatures and humid enviroment.
- *Solution:* Feed more frequently, find a cooler spot, and adjust flour-to-water ratio to slow fermentation.